Friday, November 17, 2006

Friday 11/17 A.M. Quickie:One Game To Rule Them All

Housekeeping: See the post below for a short explanation of why the blog looks the same today as it did yesterday, despite my claims of a so-called relaunch as "danshanoff.com" on WordPress.

Ohio St vs. Michigan Mania: It's the "Regular Season Game of the Century!" (Certainly "Pre-Game-Hype Game of the Year," surpassing 1-vs-2 Ohio St vs. Texas.) I've got more on this game coming in its own post later this morning, but I absolutely agree with any argument that, on paper, it's the Game of the Century, Regular Season Edition. (The bar for overall "Game of the Century" is tough to top: That would be last season's Rose Bowl between USC and Texas.)

WVA 45, Pitt 27: West Virginia is positioning itself to steal Rutgers' BCS auto-bid as Big East champs. WVA meets Rutgers in Morgantown on Dec. 2; a WVA win sends the league to a tie-breaker, based on BCS ranking. Of course, if Rutgers can win in Morgantown to cap an unbeaten regular season, they'll have earned their spot in the BCS title game. No other team in the country (outside of the Ohio St-Michigan winner) would have a claim to two wins as "quality" as those.

Johan Santana wins AL Cy: Unanimously, as expected/projected/hoped here. The only question is where Johan ranks among all pitchers over the decade. He's certainly in the mix for No. 1, wouldn't you say?

A's promote Geren: Couldn't the A's have saved a lot of time, trouble and resources in their managerial search by simply promoting bench coach Bob Geren at the outset? Was he the best choice, the choice by default or what?

College Hoops: Another ranked team bites it. Unranked MichiganState beat No. 19 Texas. As usual, when MichiganState is unranked, that's usually a good indicator they're vastly underrated.

More CBB: Big night for two of my Final Four teams. Florida stretched its winning streak to 14 (34 and 17 from Horford/Noah, who should BOTH be first-team All-Americans); Georgia Tech routed GeorgiaState, putting up 103 points.

NBA: Baron Davis Rules. He had what could be the Stat Line of the Year (so far): 36 points, 18 assists (career high) and 8 rebounds, leading the Warriors to their 4th straight win, over the previously sizzling Kings, no less.

PFHOF first-time semifinalists: Bruce Matthews, Terrell Davis and Randall McDaniel. I don't see any getting in. Does Matthews earn it simply for having a career length that was so prolific? If you let TD in, you have to let every few-year wonder in.

Pro video-game league: I missed this last week, but I've always been enthusiastic about the prospects of creating a pro-sports league of video-gamers. (They even have a TV deal.) If you're curious (I was), you can check it out here.

This week in movies: All the hype is for the new James Bond film, but who else is like me and can't wait for the new Christopher Guest movie, "For Your Consideration?" Between "Guffman," "Best in Show" and "Mighty Wind" (not to mention "Spinal Tap"), Guest and his ensemble might be the consistently funniest movie-makers of all time.

Finally, in the Best Story of the Day: A new study shows that chocolate milk might be more effective than sports drinks for helping athletes perform. Hershey's Messy Marvin trumps Gatorade's Peyton Manning?

That chocolate milk story reminds me of the SNL skit where they advertised for cookie dough in Gatorade-like bottles. I'd love to see a coach get a thermos of Hershey's dumped on them after a huge win...

I was torn between rooting for a Pitt win to make RU's Big East title chances easier and the need for RU to face a strong WVU team to have a shot at the NC game. In the end I would rather have seen a Pitt win which would have alllowed RU to clinch a BCS bowl before 12/2 in Morgantown.

"No other team in the country (outside of the Ohio St-Michigan winner) would have a claim to two wins as "quality" as those."

What about USC if they win? They would have wins over Cal and ND but they should not be in over Rutgers if they both win out. A one lose team in a major conference should never make it into the nat'l championship game over a major conference unbeaten.

I'm not saying he's a lock, but you have to take Terrell Davis' injury into consideration. For the "few years" he was as dominant as any RB in the game. And much more than Elway was the reason Denver finally won those 2 Super Bowls. I think the career-ending injury has to be taken into account and I think he will squeak in.

And much more than Elway was the reason Denver finally won those 2 Super Bowls.

If failure to win a championship isn't a mitigating factor in making the HOF, then winning a championship shouldn't be a positive factor. Otherwise, we'd have to dedicate the Doug Williams and Desmond Howard Wing.

Will you cover the pro video gamers league, up until they start playing NHL 07?

Peyton Manning's got a gun for an arm, but has he ever shot his own eye out?

Do we think that a fluke loss (USC) shouldn't count against them as much as a manhandle loss (ND)? Because the argument against ND is that a really good team picked them apart. The argument against USC is that it was just one of those days, and wouldn't happen any of the other 9 times out of 10. ND wouldn't be "expected" to win 9/10 against Michigan.

Or is that just part of the subjectiveness involved with ranking the teams?

"Of course, if Rutgers can win in Morgantown to cap an unbeaten regular season, they'll have earned their spot in the BCS title game"

please stop with this nonsense that the big(l)east is a major conference, and that an undefeated winner of said conference somehow "deserves" a shot at the national championship game. just because someone(ncaa) says it is so(bcs conference), doesn't make it so. bully for rutgers if they do beat wvu, but there are at least 10 better teams out there. just another example of why we need a playoff. and if i hear anyone else say that the next few weeks are somehow some "defacto playoff" i think i will hurl.

I am still not sold on a Big East team being worthy of a National title shot. Let them go to a different BCS bowl and beat a USC, Michigan/OSU loser, Florida type school and win... then we'll see about next year.

Let me throw this out there. If Tom Brady suffered a career-ending injury on Sunday, should he be a Hall of Famer? If you think yes, than TD should get in. They both would have about the same length of dominance, plus leading their teams to multiple Super Bowl wins. Just a point of discussion.

And personally, I think Bo was the most amazing athlete I've ever seen. If he had led Oakland to 2 Super Bowls, I would have to give him consideration.

So let me get this straight - ND loses to a very good team...USC loses to a bad team - so cut USC a break because it was a bad day? Maybe it was a bad day for ND and a very good team pounced on them - maybe they can beat michigan 9/10 times...brian, what kinda of argument is that. ND is 9-1 and has one loss to the #2 team! How USC is being exhaulted above ND after losing to an unranked team is ludicrous.

Yes, WVU struggles with D, they are never going to compete, of course, recruiting-wise to Notre DAme, Ohio State and all of the other big schools that grab the best recruits like the Yankees continually grab the best free agents. But even though WVU won't be in the title game...I still would have loved to see if and that is a big IF...if Ohio State and/or Michigan could handle the unique and explosive offense WVU possesses. No team is as explosive, there is no denying that. In any case, I loved the Backyard Brawl, and I love beating Pitt as much as other people love crushing their biggest rivals.

geoff-detroit, would you say the same for WVU? They beat UGA last year in a BCS bowl.

Just 'cause miami and tech left the BCS does not mean the rest of the teams aren't good. Seriously, its the names on the uniforms that is keeping Rutgers down.I didn't think the Knights had a great shot to beat the mountaineers, but after last nights game I think they can.

If you don't think they play D in the big east, you didn't watch rutgers shut down louisville.

I'm not saying rutgers is necessarily as good as some of the SEC teams, or even USC, but if they win out, they deserve a shot to prove it.

I wonder, if michigan loses this week, will rutgers shoot to the top of the computer rankings, or get leapt by OSU...

The added bonus of the chocolate milk mustache is that it looks like a dirty sanchez, right Screech?

As far as Terrell Davis and his 2 Super Bowls, you also have to take into consideration that the Broncos cheated the cap those 2 years and thus had an unfair competitive advantage. The NFL should have made them forfeit them in my opinion but in any case they are at least tainted titles. Terrell Davis is not a hall of famer.

But this is Michigan-Ohio State. 100 years of tradition. The game of the year in the Big Ten year in, year out (and I say that as a Northwestern fan and alum). Every other team in the Big Ten measures themselves against these teams (and more often than not come up short). Bo vs. Woody. Two of the best venues in college football. Fan bases that flat out hate each other (demonstrated perhaps best by the perhaps fictional story of Woody's car running out of gas one time in Michigan and him walking all the way to Ohio to fill it up).

But more than that, it's a 1-2 matchup on the last day of the regular season that didn't need voters, or computers, or polls to happen. The two best teams in the country (without a doubt), playing one game for pretty much an undisputed national championship (I think both will kill their bowl opponents, unless we get the rematch).

This is only going to be the game of the century if it is a good game - USC v. Texas was the game of the century because it was chamionship game that was incredible between two powerhouses. If OSU blows out Michigan or vice versa, it will not be the game of the century no matter what the hype surrounding it is...it wont even be the game of the week.

Steve - You really are a giant douche bag aren't you. If they cheated how did they not get any type of punishment. Moron. Maybe you are just miserable because your mother takes it in the ass every night

i will gladly tell you why the big east is thought of as a poor conference. THEY DON'T PLAY ANYBODY - and that includes each other. the reason they have those 3 teams in the bcs is because of their records...obtained by beating substandard non-conference opponents and each other. just because idiot pollsters fall for the shiny records does not make them good teams. if someone says the ocean is orange, it doesn't make it so. now i don't mean to say that they are shitty...but they just don't compare to the major conference schools out there. i know you apologists will bring up what wvu did to uga in the sugar bowl last year, but lets face it: the only bowl game with real meaning was usc-tx. that is why the bowl system is outdated and a playoff is needed.

pootietang, I completely agree that there needs to be either an 8 or a 16 team playoff at the end of the regular season. Where I disagree is if Rutgers wins out the will have 2 wins against top 10 teams and only the winner of Ohio/Michigan and the winner of USC/ND could say that.

IF RUTGERS IS UNBEATEN THEY SHOULD MAKE THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME.

One, ND got manhandled....So it seemed less fluky. It's believable in my mind that if ND-Mich played 10 times, Mich wins at least 7 out of 10, because the one they did win in real life looked convincing. USC's loss was to a much worse team, and only by 2 points. That seems more of a "any given Saturday" argument, not indicative of the relative strength between USC and Oregon St.

My point being...both ND and USC have lost a game. USC's was fluky. ND's looked more damning to their own argument. ND says "yeah, we only lost once, and it was to really good Michigan. you guys lost to a crappy team." USC's argument is "you guys showed you're OBVIOUSLY worse than Michigan....we just had a fluke upset."

If ND had beaten Michigan, and their only loss was a tight one to Michigan State instead....then I'd say THAT was an equivalent loss to USC's....a team they play every year, not as good, but pulled off an upset.

I like the argument for USC at this point over the argument for Notre Dame. It's not going to matter once they play in a couple of weekends....But until then, USC's argument makes more sense to me.

No one will ever win the Rutgers argument - they may win against to top ten teams - but they are marginal top ten created by beating crap teams and each other...no one will ever convince the other that Rutgers is deserving/undeserving.

Basically they are not going to make it as long as there is a one-loss SEC or ND/USC team out there...so grumble all you want, it just isn't going to happen.

Hey, we do all have to wonder this. Will the East Coast bias push Rutgers higher? After all, NYC doesn't have a college football team (Army?) worth singing about....Rutgers is about as close as there is. College football certainly doesn't have the same Boston-NY-Philly-DC domination that the pro sports do. This could be a chance for the NY media to play up a team from its area.

I'm getting a vibe that you usually see in basketball....St. Joe's can't be a #1 seed, they haven't played anyone! Or Memphis....

And then St. Joe's proved they were at least worthy of the seed, winning 3 games before losing a nailbiter to #2 OSU.

The problem is that football's only got a one game playoff, rather than 64-game, so the teams that get left out are really OUT....not simply playing from a lower seed. Teams that end up the #3 seed in their region in March still get to disprove the merit of the ranking. Football teams don't.

Let them go to a different BCS bowl and beat a USC, Michigan/OSU loser, Florida type school and win... then we'll see about next year.

Ummm... This happened last year. You know, when WVU proved that their offense can score on any defense. And UGA had a fast defense last year.

Every single argument people use to disparage the Big East could be applied to other so-called major conferences, only because it's called the Big East, and because it doesn't have Miami anymore, and because Rutgers is its best team, there's some psychological block keeping people from acknowledging that these are good teams, every bit as worthy as Florida, ND, USC or anyone else of playing in the BCS Championship.

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.